I have a resident visa through marriage and need to set up a proprietary company in Taiwan. It seems that the biggest hurdle is the requirement for an office address. I live in a high-rise apartment, so I can’t use my home address. In the United States and in India, I’ve used turn-key and virtual offices and “incubator” spaces, but these all seem to be rare in Taiwan, especially in Taichung, where I would like to establish my office.
I actually do all my work in my home office (in my apartment), my office in India, or on the road. I really do not want to rent a brick-and-mortar office to set up a company in Taiwan.
I approached a couple of business owners I know in Taiwan and they are reluctant to let me use their addresses, citing tax consequences (?!).
If anyone can recommend any inexpensive “virtual” office spaces or share stories of successful and unsuccessful attempts at sharing an office address, I would really appreciate it.
Also, I’m wondering what the advantages and disadvantages are of setting the company up in my name. I’m a legal resident, so I would think that there would not be much difference between it being in my name or my wife’s, who is a Taiwanese citizen. Personally, I would prefer it to be solely in my name at this time.
Also, there’s no law forbidding trading companies registering an address in a high rise. You have to check if it’s possible, and accountant will do that for you. I think the cost is NT$2-3k to get a permit to run a trading company out of a residential property.
I have heard NT$3k a month mentioned for a virtual office.
Many trading companies register virtual offices in high-value areas for image purposes. The 101 has a virtual office solution in the 37th floor, and you’ll be sharing the address with the types of Google and so.
I saw many other solutions (even accountancy firms giving you virtual office solution), so you can run all your biz from home, and not from a brick and mortar office.
If you need a good accountant, I can give you the contact of mine, she is in Taipei…
Dude, you can find offices in Taichung for less than NT$3k. Worth comparing the cost of a virtual office vs real office when rent is this low. www.e-rent.com.tw
‘Tax issues’ are that landlords offer discounted rent if they don’t have to declare the rental. My office landlord is fine with it because I pay him the tax which he (maybe) pays to the gubmint.
I ended up getting a virtual office in Taipei for 3,000 a month. You can only use virtual offices for business registration in Taipei it seems. For that I can use their conference rooms and they’ll handle mail and faxes for me. I don’t care about fax since I use e-fax. But having the rare bit of mail faxed or forwarded on is nice. I travel a lot and when I’m in Taiwan I’m working in my home office in Taichung. Having the VO in Taipei was the easiest if not least expensive option for me.